She used a little magic to make a clay bowl fire instantly and to make some sticks prop the bowl up but she's not using magic on the smoke, it's just coating the inside of the bowl with soot.

Eh, valid. Jinye is aware you make ink out of soot but this is actually one of the areas her knowledge is limited on.

Fortunately Maurabel knows how. In the meantime she can practice arranging the type, while Adamant collects on his payment of a few hours of privacy off in the woods.

Great! Printing press, metal type, magic, food... everything's going great.

"So what's your - story? What brings you here."

When in doubt, honesty:

"I have no idea. I was in my own home and then I was in a different city. I am still considering that this might all be a dream or a very realistic hallucination."

"...gosh. Were you in a dark place?"

"I was in a place containing shadows but not one that was mostly dark."

"...huh. Well, that basically rules out Shadow-walking unless there's a fancy trick to it I don't know about."

"I didn't consider shadow-walking until I arrived," she admits.

"...until you arrived?"

"... Here. And had how magic worked explained to me."

"...no elementals where you're from?"

"No. Just very well-built machines."

"No mages either? Ever?"

"We have history dating back several thousand years, and there are no reliable reports of anything that resembles mages, elementals, or magic anywhere in it."

"Have you tried scrying the place?"

"Not being a mage, I haven't."

"I mean, not yourself personally... Do you want me to try?"

Has she said anything that will cause a crisis if Maurabel investigates and discovers some kind of horrible crime? She doesn't think so.

"Why not?"

"Well, if you don't know where it is, for one thing, that would complicate the matter."

"... Where in physical space relative to my current location?"

She pauses. "Can you explain the scrying requirements to me, please?"

"For shadow scrying you need to be looking for someplace dark and navigate there in shadow-sight, which is really hard for humans but easy for Shadow elementals. You do need to get there spatially."

"I see," she says. "I do not know how to get there spatially, or even if it is possible to get there spatially."

"How might it be impossible?"